New Hard Drive Question...

[otherstuff1957]

I've got a hardware question. My computer is a Toshiba Equium with a 10 Gb hard drive that I bought used at Phantip Plaza. I like the computer, it's got a flat screen monitor and a nice compact "tower", but I'm worried about running out of memory.

I've noticed that I can get a new 40 Gb hard drive for about 2K baht at Phantip Plaza. I don't have any problems with physically replacing the HD, but I don't really know how to transfer all of the programs and data from the old drive to the new drive. I was thinking of removing the old HD and taking it in with me. A lot of the guys in the small stores in the back of the 3rd & 4th floors are pretty sharp and may be able transfer the data for me if I hand them the old drive.

Is this a practical option? Or does anybody else have any suggestions?

BTW, one of the upgrades I've done with the computer is to replace the old CD drive with DVD/CD combo drive, so I can burn CD's if that is a good solution. However, if I have my math right, I would need about 40 CDS to store the 3 Gb that I currently use on my HD. (or is it 400? )

TIA

[paulfr]

Ok, several points here ....

First the CD. Depending on the DVD/CD drive you got, you can put

a min of 600MB on one CD. So the 3GB would only require

5 CD's. That is worst case. Your DVD/CD drive may be capable

of putting as much as 6-7GB on one disc. I recently had a friend

give me a load of scientific books and lectures on a CD with

3.7GB on it.

Second. Any tech should be able to add a 2nd hard drive to

your system by slaving it to the original HD. It is just a matter

of adding the drive, plugging it into the extension and power

that is standard on most systems. Then Windows will see the

drive and moving data is just point and drag.

Third. If you have a USB port on this old CPU, you can

buy a USB hard drive yourself and just plug it in. Windows

should recognize it and guide you thru installation.

Then no need to find and pay a tech at Pantip

Good luck

[Bizz]

All the advise you require and nore is here just take your time.

Remember to plug out .http://www.aplawrence.com/Unixart/hdtransfer.html

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=transf...d+drive&spell=1

[Firefoxx]

Yes, it's feasible to just take the old drive with you when buying a new one. The techs would use a drive imaging program like Ghost and do direct byte-per-byte transfer of information to the new drive (3GB would take only a few minutes, you could wait). You can then put the new drive back in place of the old one without having to re-install (but you might have to reconfigure your bios if it's not auto-detect).

The other solutions mentioned are also feasible. Depends on what you want.

About your math: Much of the stuff you have is the operating system and programs, which you can re-install later. So, all you would backup is your user data and document files (which include movies, music, etc.etc.). You won't need 40 CDs.

[waldwolf]

otherstuff1957 - Most new "Retail Packaged" hard drives (HDD) come with software which will allow you to partition, format and drive copy (make a "mirror" image of your "old" drive) on the new HDD. For example, Western Digital provide a CD with software named "Data LifeGuard Tools" which does these jobs.

As regards "backup" of your current drive image or data, the software which you use for CD burning (Nero, EasyCD Creator, etc.) usually include some type of backup utility. Even older Windows OS's, while somewhat lacking, have such a utility. See Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Backup or your Windows Help file. My 3.2GB incl OS and data uses about 6 CD's (using Nero backup). and at 48x write, about 30-35 minutes.

Suggest you consider a larger HDD than 40GB (eg: 80GB) as the cost differential should be rather small. Also, try to get a 7,200rpm HDD with 8MB cache. The faster read/write time is very noticeable.

good luck

[stumonster]

buy a new hard drive, and get the biggest one you can afford, an 80 gig is the go.

take your old drive out and change it from master to slave.

when you put your new drive in set it up as master, partition it, format the partitons and re install the operating system on it.

suggest as the comp is a few years old, buy a copy of win2k pro from panthip while you are there and put that on.

once you have the new OS installed , install your programs again, then copy back at your lesuire your data from your old hard drive, and once you have everything you want from the old drive you can give it a format.

also several options for your 10 gig drive, buy an external USB case for it, can come in very handy, or leave it inside the comp as a second drive, or buy a removable bay for the desktop and bung it in there.

if you put win2kpro on your sys and the old OS was win98/ME make sure you download form the net video and modem win2k drivers suitable for your gear and save them on the 10 gig drive.

when I put a new HD in my laptop I bought a 30gig swapped that in and put the old 6 gig in an external USB case, so re installing my data was very easy.

rather than imaging an old install of an OS, a fresh install is a better way to go.